AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Castle Green: Why It Happens and How to Avoid It
Leave your motor and ignition off then ring 0333 366 0103 now — reading can wait if AdBlue is already in the diesel tank. Normally, if your motor has not turned, it is emptied and thoroughly cleaned where your vehicle sits in Castle Green. Nothing happened yet? Further down, the page covers the reasons it happens and the ways to avoid it for good.
AdBlue in a diesel motor, and its separate tank
Not one liquid but two: that is how plenty of modern diesels around Castle Green and Crossness run, with diesel feeding the engine. Stored in a tank of its own, AdBlue is fed into your exhaust gas to clean it.
There's a filler for every tank. Under one flap, next to each other: that is the arrangement on a lot of motors. On others, AdBlue's filler is under the bonnet or in your boot instead. Diesel goes in on each forecourt visit, week in, week out. The AdBlue side is fuelled far less commonly, usually from a bottle, and usually by somebody who has to stop and think where it goes. The mistake grows in the gap between the two.
How does AdBlue in the diesel tank happen around Castle Green?
Seldom is it carelessness: normally three things line up.
The warning comes first. As AdBlue runs low the vehicle tells you, and if it runs out altogether, your vehicle drops into limp mode. So the top-up is done in a hurry: on a drive off Flamstead Road before work, or in the car park at The Ship and Shovel on the way home.
Unfamiliar vehicles come next, as well. Hire cars, new cars and company motors place their fillers differently, and habit goes for the cap it used on the old one.
A spouted bottle meets no resistance at a diesel filler any more than at an AdBlue one. So the tip, once begun, keeps on. It's a few seconds, whether out in Barking Riverside or bang in the centre of Castle Green.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
Whether a Castle Green forecourt or a driveway out in Barking, take a few seconds over these before any is poured in.
- Colour and marking: an AdBlue cap is regularly blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap normally does not. Trust the cap, not its position.
- Plenty of vehicles give AdBlue the smaller neck of the two.
- The flap. Look inside the fuel flap for a label. Plenty of motors say there which fuel goes where.
- The handbook says which it is when your filler is not next to your diesel cap: your boot, or under the bonnet.
- Whoever had it before will know. Ask when you collect a rental or fleet car — at Barking Riverside's car park, perhaps — rather than once the light comes on.
How to top up without AdBlue in your diesel tank
A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever in Greater London that is.
- Pull in somewhere level, motor off, with time in hand — never rushing on the side of Ripple Road.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, once you find the AdBlue filler and read it. Daft, perhaps, yet it does the trick.
- If both sit under one flap, check your diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — and leave the vehicle on.
- Tip slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it's full or when the bottle is empty.
- Shut the cap, and look once more — confirm your diesel cap remained shut the whole time. Only then, start the vehicle.
If at step two or three you find you have already poured into the diesel side, stop there. Never go on to step five.
Already put AdBlue in the diesel tank in Castle Green?
Brief order, then. Top of it: the engine stays off. Keep the ignition off too, because on plenty of diesels switching it on by itself starts the pump. Diluting it with more diesel fails, because AdBlue settles to the base rather than mixing — and that is where the fuel is sucked from.
On a forecourt — Texaco, Shell or another — the attendants will usually help push the vehicle clear, if you ask. Leave it where it is if you're on your own driveway in Castle Green.
Stop as soon as it is safe and switch off, if the engine has already run. Castle Green lies under 5 miles from the M11; on it, take the first junction. Tell us roughly how far it went: a run towards London, under 10 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Castle Green.
When our engineers get there in Castle Green, what occurs?
Our van comes to the vehicle wherever it has come to rest — your own drive, near St John the Divine, Rivers of Joy Parish, or by Monteagle Primary School. Those answers decide this work and the price, so our engineers ask what got in, about how much, and whether it has run. On the call itself, you hear the price — before anything else.
Then that tank is emptied and the system rinsed thoroughly. Unlike petrol, AdBlue leaves crystals and attacks some fuel-system metals, and neither clears out by itself. Hence it counts more. A test is last: before that, clean diesel is added, and your filter is flushed or changed if necessary. The motor is fired up next and tested to confirm it runs smoothly, all before our technicians leave.
Unstarted vehicles usually mean a half-hour visit after the moment we arrive. The equipment is safe on a busy filling station, and hushed enough for a driveway late at night. Your insurer usually wants an engineer's report and your VAT invoice, and you get both once this job is done. Payment comes on the day, with no money upfront. Wrong-fuel cover is part of plenty of insurance policies — so make use of the wait to look at yours.
About Castle Green
Castle Green is a suburban area in Greater London, situated near the Thames estuary at a low elevation of around 6 metres. Castle Green lies within a network of residential communities, including nearby Barking Riverside and Becontree. Castle Green is characterized by its predominantly terraced housing stock, reflecting the typical architectural style of many London suburbs.
AdBlue drains about Castle Green, and Greater London beyond
Throughout RM postcodes, the vans that cover Castle Green — a residential suburb — work the nearby places too, Creekmouth and Becontree included. Give a postcode beginning RM9 4, and the van arrives quickest.
No need to move the vehicle. The drain takes place on the spot, whether a drive, a street near Sporting Heroes of Barking and Dagenham, or a lay-by on the way to the green space at the edge of the village. Tricky to explain, like the back of Barking Rugby Union Club? By a border? Asking is better than assuming, and so ring.
For Castle Green people, the short version
Before you pour, read the cap. AdBlue in your diesel tank regardless? Leave the vehicle off and ring 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel drains it where it stands, throughout Greater London.